02 June,2017 07:15 PM IST | Mumbai | Vijay Kumar Yadav
Five Arthur Road inmates' artworks sell for between Rs 10,000-12,000 as reform exercise paints a picture of hope for jailbirds that a prison term need not be a bleak interruption in life
A work by Ramesh Vavekar that sold at Kamalnayan Bajaj Art Gallery, Nariman Point, recently. None of the inmates are trained artists
Gilherme Nevas, Ramesh Vavekar, Anirudh Gaikwad, Shravan Kumar Jaiswal and Narayan Mangal paint a picture of hope for jailbirds: that a prison term need not be a bleak interruption in life.
Five abstract works, all acrylic on canvas, made by these five undertrials at Arthur Road Jail, sold for up to Rs 12,000 each at an art exhibition held recently.
Representation pic
The paintings impress with their fluidity of vivid hues, lines, dots, swirls, strokes, scribbles and other oddities.
The five undertrials, who face several criminal cases and have been lodged at Arthur Road Jail, used their time in prison to hone their skills as part of a reformatory exercise titled Art From Behind Bars.
"Their paintings were sold at an exhibition at Nariman Point's Kamalnayan Bajaj Art Gallery," said Harshad Aherao, superintendent of Arthur Road Jail, even as a panting workshop was going on at the jail this week.
While foreign national Nevas and Vavekar's works went for Rs 10,000 each, paintings by Gaikwad, Jaiswal and Mangal were sold for Rs 12,000 apiece. The proceeds from the sale were deposited in the undertrials' accounts. Some of the prisoners transferred the money to their family members and some to their lawyers, while others kept in it their prison account, said an official.
A total of 14 paintings, including the five that were eventually sold, were exhibited. Unsold artworks were framed and now grace the passage of the office of the inspector general of police (south), prisons, in Byculla.
Art From Behind Bars is the flagship campaign of NGO Dagar Pathway Trust, which has been conducting colour therapy workshops at Arthur Road Jail, the Byculla jail and Yerawada Central Prison in Pune since 2009.
The official mid-day spoke to said Dagar identified the artistic talent of several inmates and encouraged them to paint the canvas as they wished. "The law teaches us that if there is a wrong done, there is a remedy for it. Our remedy is art, to heal, to ensure their self worth and show them a value for life," said Kavita Shivdasani, founder, Dagar Pathway Trust.
She said the campaign rests on the belief that unity and affirmation have more power to prompt a behavioural change than shame and punishment.
